These days, cinematographic techniques make it possible to enrich the audiovisual content and the experience of the spectator. The advent of 3D offers the spectator a real immersion in the film which is becoming increasingly realistic and impressive. Recently, items of equipment have been added to the seat on which the spectator is seated to give him sensations other than those provided by his sight alone. Thus, seats now move according to several degrees of freedom causing the spectator to experience a movement which is associated with the visual and possibly audio content. For example, in the case of a film shot on the front of a roller coaster car, when a descent is reproduced on the cinema screen, the spectator's seat tips slightly forward. Another example consists in making the cinema seats vibrate intensively from left to right during the reproduction of an earthquake scene.
Audiovisual content with haptic enhancement makes it possible to control actuators which cause the spectator to move during the reproduction of the document. In this way, the spectator is aware of the content not only by sight and hearing, but also by touch. His immersion in the reproduction of the document is thus greater and his impression of experiencing the event more intense.
Most of the time, haptic enhancements are added for films already made. An operator views the film and determines a sequence for which perception would be enhanced for the spectator by a movement performed on his person. The operator manually determines the type of movement (displacement, vibration, throbbing, trembling, etc.) and programs the activation of specific actuators during this sequence. The haptic parameters are added to the video and possibly audio signals on a specific medium. During the reproduction, the haptic parameters are read and transmitted to the actuators responsible for applying stimuli to the spectator. These stimuli can generate all kinds of sensations: well-being, anxiety, assurance, smallness, vertigo, etc.
Currently, these haptic parameters are calculated manually by an operator viewing the video or audiovisual content. There therefore exists a real need for a new technique making it possible to automate the creation of haptic actuator control parameters and the enhancement of new video content.